


No Home and a Bag of Bones

by Tabithian



Series: Fortunes Fade [7]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 15:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4671230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabithian/pseuds/Tabithian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a rumor going around Gotham that their newest bad guy has some kind of standing...agreement that the Bats are <i>his</i>, that anyone who touches one is going to hear from him personally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Home and a Bag of Bones

**Author's Note:**

> Side story in the Fortunes Fade AU. Takes place somewhere during Where the Fine Line Begins where Jason has a run in with Red Hood.

There's a rumor going around Gotham that their newest bad guy has some kind of standing...agreement that the Bats are _his_ , that anyone who touches one is going to hear from him personally. 

The implication has always been that Red Hood had plans to kill them himself, make examples of them to send a message, the kind that sticks in peoples' heads.

And Jason, okay.

He has. They're not really nightmares, just really disturbing, vivid, dreams about the scenes that asshole leaves behind for them to find. 

Red hood may not be an indiscriminate killer, but he knows how to get a message across. That hey, fucking with the Red Hood is a terrible idea.

_Don't do it._

The guy's like some kind of ghost, the way none of them knew he was even around for the first few months. All they'd known was something big was going down in Gotham's criminal underworld that had Bruce more paranoid than usual because they couldn't find out _why_.

Bruce looking at him, at Dick, and ordering them to stick together on patrol if they weren't with Bruce. Don't split up for anything.

A little bit later, and then there's the guy with the shiny red helmet running around Gotham making a name for himself. 

Red Hood, this guy even Bruce can't pin down for long, is cold and a terrifying sort of ruthless.

Over time they've gotten an idea of how he works. Pieced together from bits of information and evidence they've been able to find.

Everything he does is so carefully planned, thought out.

Jason and the others have seen it time and again, even before they knew what they were looking for, _who_ they're looking for.

Red Hood gives these guys warnings, a little taste of what he can do to them, and the smart ones? They listen up real fast, and either fall into line or get the hell out of Gotham. The stupid, stubborn fuckers who think they can take the Red Hood down because he's just one man?

He breaks them.

Takes them apart, lets them see where their money and power gets them when it's them against the Red Hood. Lets them watch everything they've built on the suffering of other people fall apart around them.

Red Hood picks off their guys, starting with the low guys on the pole and tears a path through ranks, nice and slow. Steady, relentless, like he has all the damn time in the world.

Lets whoever is in charge get a good long look at what kind of loyalty their money buys them when their lackeys and trusted lieutenants turn tail and run because Red Hood? 

Not someone you want to piss off. 

He lets them see that, lets it sink in and then, _then_ , he deals with them.

And Jason and the others get to deal with the aftermath, which.

Fantastic.

Bruce goes this quiet and dark Jason hasn't seen for a while, and Dick.

Christ, Dick's face.

To make things even better, this guy, this Red Hood, is a threat and he's got. It's not quite a bounty out on them, but it might as well be, the way things work in Gotham.

********

Rumors of some kind of deal going down in an old warehouse. Minor thugs and goons milling around at street level, agitated about something.

Dick and Jason watching from the roof of a nearby building, Dick looking at Jason, little smirk on his lips.

“You go low, I go high?” Jason asks, cracking his knuckles.

Dick frowns, open his mouth to say something because Bruce and his no splitting up rule – 

“Come on, Dick,” Jason says. “We can handle this.”

Dick looks at the warehouse and back to Jason. Punches him hard, on the shoulder.

“We stick together, and don't take any chances, okay?”

Jason looks at the warehouse, cold shiver going up his spine because - 

“Robin?”

“Christ, yes, okay.”

********

They get inside the warehouse easily enough, thugs and goons too stupid to look up even though this is Gotham.

Dick chuckles at Jason's incredulousness, ruffles his hair. “That's actually a good thing for us, you know?”

Jason scowls, bats Dick's hand away.

Dick grins at him, and they make their way deeper into the warehouse.

They find what looks like the missing military shipment Barbara mentioned a few days ago, weapons, things that go boom and make big old messes of whoever is unlucky enough to be in the blast radius.

More goons, thugs, and Robin and Nightwing do a good job of taking them down for the most part. Take a few hits themselves, but nothing too serious. A bruise here, little cut there.

Point is, they're doing great until something comes tearing through one of the walls, screeching breaks and startled yells as everyone scatters. 

Jason loses track of Dick as more goons spill out of the van, heads for the rafters when gunfire breaks out.

The new guys aren't shooting to kill, really, just working at dropping the thugs and goons and then - 

Shit.

Red Hood climbs out of the van, looks around at the mess his guys have made. Takes in the weapons and supplies and throws out hand signals that have his people scurrying to grab everything. A couple breaking off to gather up all the wounded thugs.

Jason edges deeper into the shadows and watches Red Hood and his guys. The van leaves, loaded down, and another takes its place. Smooth, organized.

Red Hood walks up to the wounded thugs and goons, stares at them for a long moment. Tapping his gun against his leg like he's thinking, taking his sweet time about it.

And the thing is, Red Hood? He's not a big guy, really. Average height, maybe. Although the boots add a few inches. No, the thing that makes him scary, terrifying, is the way he moves, acts. 

Menacing, dangerous, like some kind of predator, a big cat, maybe. 

Just. 

Something that lets you know he could kill you, if he wanted, so damn easy.

Movement, at the corner of his eye and when Jason turns to look, sees Dick making his way towards him in the rafters. There's a line of blood down his face but otherwise he seems okay.

“Robin,” Dick hisses. “We need to get out of here.”

Jason looks at him. “You think?”

Dick gives him a _look_.

“Now, Robin,” Dick snaps, and Jason starts moving backwards, eyes on Red Hood.

Jason never knows what it is, exactly, just that something gives them away and the fucker's looking up at them. Spots Jason right off, head turning slightly to where Dick's crouched.

“Faster,” Dick says, and like the contrary bastard he can be, moves closer to Jason, and consequently further from their nearest out, Red Hood tracking his movement. 

Jason swears, low, angry, and that's when one of Red Hood's men happens to look at their boss, follows his line of sight and starts shooting.

Jason hears Red Hood's voice, filtered through a voice modulator snapping out a cease fire order, but it's too late by that point.

Jason feels the bullet hit, pain flaring in his side, the impact enough to knock him from his already precarious perch. He catches a glimpse of Dick trying to reach him, but there are bullets flying and not enough room to maneuver and and shit, shit, shit, the floor's a long way down.

********

Jason comes to some time later, and wishes he hadn't because everything fucking hurts, and his limbs feel leaden, weighted down, mind sluggish.

“You shouldn't try to move.”

Jason's eyes snap open, because - 

“I'm surprised you're still alive, actually.”

Jason turns his head, and surprise, surprise, there's Red Hood watching him. (The voice modulator gave him away.)

“What can I say, I'm a stubborn little shit,” Jason says, or means to say, but all that comes out is a pained little croak.

Red Hood stares at him.

“Shut up,” Jason says, and this time, at least, it's understandable.

Red hood stands, and that's when Jason realizes they're not at the warehouse anymore. They're in some shitty building somewhere that's missing important things like walls, and a fair bit of the ceiling.

Probably drafty as hell in winter.

“The hell?” Jason says, watching Red Hood. “You moved me? I could have had a spine injury, you asshole!”

Because yes, that's exactly what Red Hood should be worrying about when it comes to his enemies. 

Red Hood cocks his head. “And that would have been my concern, how?”

Fantastic, Red Hood is an asshole.

Not like Jason didn't know that before, but. This kind of confirms it.

“So now what?” Jason asks.

He can sort of see the neighborhood they're in through the missing wall, and.

It's a bunch of rundown buildings and the eerie kind of quiet Gotham's so good at in some areas. Not a lot of witnesses around, that kind of neighborhood. The two of them seem to be alone, which. 

Not worrying at all, and the fact that this would be an okay place to kill someone without being caught at it? Also not worrying. 

Okay, no, it is, but not for the obvious reasons.

Because Jason can see the trackers Bruce put in his suit sitting in a sad little pile on what was probably a coffee table at one point. All broken and mangled and totally useless.

“If you're looking to send a message to Batman, this isn't the best way to do it.”

Killing Jason, _Robin_ , where no one will see or even know about it? Not what guys like this do, and Jason tries to shut down that train of thought before it's too late, because - 

Fucking _Joker_.

Red Hood laughs, but it sounds off. Tired, maybe.

“What makes you think I want to send him a message?”

That's.

That's kind of what assholes like Red Hood _do_. 

They blow into town like they think they're hot shit, cause a little bit of panic, wreak a little havoc, make the brilliant decision to challenge Batman and – well. Everyone knows what happens after that.

“Believe it or not,” Red Hood says. “This isn't about him, or _you_.”

There's a weird emphasis on the _you_ that makes Jason uneasy, and it's not helped when Red Hood walks over, places a hand over Jason's chest.

This close he can see his reflection in that damned helmet of his.

“Be more careful in the future,” Red Hood says, pulls his hand back to reveal one of Bruce's damn trackers, the kind they attach to cars. “Gotham's a dangerous city for a bird like you.”

What.

Another one of those weird laughs. Red Hood leaning down to activate the tracker, little red light blinking away.

“Nightwing was worried about you, I think. He kept up with us for a while, but.” Red Hood straightens. “He wasn't good enough.”

It should be a taunt, needling little comment, but it sounds more like simple fact, a statement.

“We're going to stop you,” Jason says, can't make himself not say it, even though it stands a good chance of getting him killed. “You know that, don't you?”

Red Hood looks at him for a long moment, and Jason's reminded of those nature documentaries they watch in school, the way the big cats will just. 

Stare. 

Look through you. 

Make you feel small.

“You can try,” Red Hood says, and walks away, leaving Jason alone with the stupid tracker waiting for Bruce and Dick to find him.

**Author's Note:**

> *hands*


End file.
